


Man and Woman

by Hypello



Category: Original Work
Genre: Drama, F/M, Hardcore, Older Characters, Older Man/Younger Woman, Orgasm, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Philosophy, Sad, Sequel, Sex, Time Skips, Underage Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-09-11 09:47:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8974762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hypello/pseuds/Hypello
Summary: Sequel to Man and Child. Ten years have passed and there's a return to the city in which a forbidden relationship bloomed. What changes as time brought? What affects on these two people's lives did those four months have? There's still sex, drama and a lot of introspection as we return again to the old Universe. Thank you very much for reading! Please comment and tell me what you think! Man and Child can be found here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/8589331/chapters/19696669





	1. The Ripple

The years all unfold in one moment, like ripples expanding over water. The source may vary, but the result is always the same. On this movement we ride, biological creatures afloat on a control not our own. The ripple takes us through childhood, adolescence, adulthood and eventually, death. Nobody can know when the ripple is to fade nor what hardships through which it will pass. All we can do is be as best a part of it as possible. 

I open my eyes to see the sun. Blinding, I squint against it, arms flailing around to pull myself up. I’m lying in the backseat of my car. It’s an old Chevy Impala, a vehicle lacking in everything which is sorely evident now with the creaks in my knees. I shuffle out of the car. The early spring air is a breath of life compared to the stuffy interior. I crick my back like an old man, turn my neck this way and that. I take in a few deep breaths of the mid-morning warmth and start scouting about. 

The motel is called the Creekway Inn, just a little strip of occupied rooms that let me sleep in the lot. There’s a diner across the street, one of those checkerboard numbers that try too hard to emulate the Happy Days era of greasy spoons. Aside from these two buildings, the roadsides are barren for as far as I can see. Been like that for the past ten hours, too. The sores on my spine are wondering why I took so long hitting the road yesterday. I apologize profusely and strike off in search of breakfast. 

I can’t say the years have been kind to me, but I also can’t say they’ve been particularly cruel. I suppose the best thing to say is that they’ve treated me just as they would anybody else. The youth of thirty ten years past seems like that of twenty in comparison. I sometimes think of how lucky I was back then. To be able to walk so much, to eat whatever I wanted at any time of the day, to be fifty pounds lighter and not so tired. This, among other reasons, is why I only sometimes think of it. 

The road is easy to scurry across, typical at this time and day. It’s also not a main stretch of highway, rather a little jughandle between two points to help alleviate congestion. I take with me only my keys and wallet. I hope my lack of showering doesn’t bother anybody too much. This fear is dispelled when I see how empty the place is. Only a few people at the counter, with none of the tables occupied. A curly-haired waitress brings me to a booth and I order a cup of coffee. The menu is a single sheet of laminated paper. 

Between getting my coffee and the kitchen preparing my shortstack, I tuck my chin into my palm and look out across the road. Partly watching my car, partly looking at the sky. It’s a shimmery blue. The clouds are a morning silver. My mind begins to wander, poking about old drawers and closets in my interior. Nothing too damning, nothing too deep, just a few files here and there not bothered to be locked away. It comes across a tape recording of a conversation, a phone call with my sister two weeks prior. 

“Susan Caulfield died.” she said as soon as the line connected. I’d been sitting in my cubicle, ignoring spreadsheets in favor of cat videos. 

“Who?” I asked. 

“She was one of mom’s friends.” my sister said, “I didn’t know her too much either. But she apparently left our family something in her will and somebody has to go get it.” 

“It’s something you have to get.” I said, “So, not money.”

I could hear my sister shrug, “Maybe money.”

“Well…” I said, “You wouldn’t be calling if you were going to get it.” 

“Smart guy.”

“Where is it?” I asked. 

My sister told me. I sat up in my seat, suddenly attentive. 

“No way.” I said. Turns out old Susan C. was from my old city. A place seemingly ancient now, she’d been living just a few blocks from me. 

“The will reading is two weeks from now.” said my sister, “Can you be there?” 

The waitress puts my pancakes in front of me. I smile up at her and accept her offer of more coffee. The answer to my sister’s question is evident as I sit en route to my old stomping grounds. Well--my old grounds. Not much stomping happened in my old life. In fact, not much of anything happened. I was a clerk at a rental store, living the most mundane of day-to-day existences. It was as bland as anything, yet somehow almost idyllic. 

Well...there was one thing…

I stare down at my pancakes as they slowly disappear. Once they’re gone, I look up at the empty seat across from me. I slide my plate to it. I get the check from the waitress’ next pass. She takes it to the register and I meet her up front to sign away ten dollars and eighty-two cents. 

My back starts complaining as approach my car. Relax, I tell it, we’re driving this time and tonight, god willing, we’ll get a hotel room. The day is early yet. The reading of the will isn’t until four, which gives me a strong five hours to get to the city and procure a temporary residence. After that, I’ll have plenty of time to make it to the lawyer’s office. The car starts with a roar subdued to a putter. I pull out onto the road. 

It feels nothing but weird riding down this stretch. The road curves so gently towards the city, which at this point is just a horizon full of buildings. Like the background of an old cartoon. It hasn’t changed at all in ten years. Not that I expected it to. Cities like this don’t change cosmetically, only internally. As I made my final approach, crossing the city limits, I wondered what kind of new world it had become.


	2. The Earth from the Moon

I had this dream once, as a kid. The memory is so distant now that only the framework still exists, but that’s enough to convey the meaning. I was standing on the edge of a tremendous cliff, looking over an ocean. The water was a steely blue and the sky a bright orange. The sun was a watercolor work slowly fading into the horizon. My shadow was long behind me. Those are the only visuals I recall. 

“You are going to die.” my shadow said. I didn’t answer. Or maybe I did, but I don’t remember. 

“Someday, you’re going to die. And I’ll die with you. So why not live a life that makes both of us happy?” 

And that’s it. That’s the dream. That last quote has lingered with me forever, a tiny little bit of immortality on my shoulder. I’ve never spoken it out loud, or told it to anybody, but it’s a mantra that I’ve studied my entire life. Who is it I’m supposed to make happy? Why does it matter so much that we’re going to die? 

The city is unchanged, visually. Muscle memory drives me around for a while. I cruise past my old place of work, which sadly now is a tire store. The gas station I used to get Gatorades from, the Denny’s I would frequent on days off. My old apartment building, still working as such. My hands turned the wheel instinctively as I approached the pull-in to the lot. I recovered control too late, which required me to drive through to the opposite exit due to the slender shape. I couldn’t help but look at the windows to my old basement apartment and at the windows on the top floor. 

It’s real funny how nothing here’s changed. I mean, it has changed, I’m sure, but the building is identical, the trees and landscape just the same. Inside I’m sure the tenants are all different, management varied and changed. Maybe even the carpets had been pulled up, who knows. I almost wanted to go creep around to see, but thought better of it and drove off towards Midtown. Susan’s lawyer’s office was fifth-floor in a stubby little building between a pizzeria and a laundromat. I drove by it to confirm the location, then took off towards the closest hotel. Hotel, with an H. No motels, inns or lodges. Nothing but the finest for me. 

The finest was a three-star Hampton Bay right at the edge of an industrial park. It had an open pool and a 24 hour gym. The front desk was pleasant and my room was a far cry better than Backseat Chalet. I sat on the bed for a bit, stretching my legs and flipping through bad television. As the hour approached, I parted the curtains to look out at the city. There’s wasn’t much a view, just old brick industry with a few brand name eateries, but the sentiment was the same. 

Had it really been ten years? How old was I, anyway? Forty? 

I wonder, when the first men to the moon returned to Earth, did they expect it to be different? After traveling so far away, a whole universe, really, did they maybe fear that what they would come back to wouldn’t be what they left behind? Is that too silly a notion, I wonder. 

Ten years...Ten years might as well be the moon for how different my life is now. An office guy with a 401k and mortgage payments. A car I have to upkeep, nieces and nephews I visit. I wonder what ten years ago would say about me now. I wonder, if this city could talk, what it would say about me. Time, man, it’s all fucked up. 

\--- 

The lawyer’s office is locked up closed when I show up. I try to squint through the fogged glass, but I can’t see anything. It’s three-fifty-six. I do a lopsided turn on my heels. The hall is empty. Afternoon sun makes dusty squares at either end. Defeated, I sit on the bench opposite the office. For a few minutes I distract myself with email and Facebook, but the novelty wears off and I’m left staring at the door, willing it to open. 

At four fifteen the elevator dings and an elderly couple emerges. They come my way and me being the upstanding guy I am, stand up to give them my seat. The husband gives me a confused look as the wife sits down. 

“Is Lewis not here?” 

“Do you mean the lawyer?” I ask. The old man gives me a quick up and down inspection. 

“Are you here for Susan’s will?” 

“Yes, sir.” I said. 

“How did you know her?” the wife asked. She had a pin shaped like a cob of corn in her hair. 

“Friend of my mother’s.” I said. I told them my name. 

“Alright, alright.” the husband said, “I know that name.” 

I nodded, “Looks like we might not see her will today, though.” I gestured at the door. 

“Lewis is always a little late.” said the wife, “Always has been. But he’s a good man, so we pay it no mind.” 

The elevator dinged again. All three of us turned to look. From it a nervous kind of man emerged. He was in a Member’s Only kind of jacket with jeans. He looked to be maybe a few years younger than me. He hurried to his door, greeting us with a smile so nervous you’d think he was going to preform surgery. 

“I am so sorry.” he said, “Traffic and all that.” 

“Don’t worry about it.” I said and the couple shared the sentiment. We all shuffled into his office. I gave the two chairs to the husband and wife and stood myself at the right corner of the desk. It was a wide, mahogany beast, exactly the kind of desk you’d expect a lawyer to have. Sunlight poured into the room, making noir-like shadows. I felt almost like a movie detective. He sat behind it and filed through papers as though he was looking for a gun. 

“Okay then.” he said, settling on a thumb-thick manilla envelope, “Abe and Maple, good to see you. And you are…” 

I gave him my name. He checked it against his papers and showed me a thumbs up. Out in the hall, I could hear the elevator ding again. Without any context of importance, I ignored it. 

“Let’s begin then…” Lewis the Lawyer’s face screwed up, “Oh, it looks like we’re missing somebody.” 

Somewhere out there, a ephemeral stage director is throwing out his arm to point towards destiny, as just as Lewis finished talking, the office door opened. In came a young woman, twenty-two years old. She had bright blonde hair that cuffed around the nape of her neck and eyes so green that they emanated light. Red and silver earring swayed from her lobes. She wore a brown leather jacket with a blue tee underneath. A rainbow was visible between the zippers of the jacket. Worn jeans, heavy boots. She was out of breath, leaning against the door as it swung open. Her beauty was striking. Almost unfair. 

“I am so, so sorry!” she said. Her breath caught up with her, “My car busted on the way here.” 

“No worries.” said Lewis. Him speaking reminded me that I was still, in fact, a person existing on planet Earth. I had turned to look at the newcomer and hadn’t moved since. 

“That means…” said Lewis, smiling, “You must be Gloria.”


	3. Old Things

I had a moment. 

That kind of introspective moment that happens between heartbeats, like the length of your life flashing before your eyes but without dying. It was a flashback, a reverse of time and space that deposited me into my old apartment. I floated near the ceiling like Scrooge over the Cratchits. Below me was the square little three-room layout of my old universe and occupying it were two people. Two lonely people. A thirty-year-old nobody with a beautiful yellow-haired preteen. We were having a conversation while eating pizza. For whatever reason, her underwear and shorts were spread out on a nearby chair. 

My memorial specter shut his eyes. He turned his back on the scene. My real eyes snapped into focus, still staring at Gloria. The noise of the office returned in a whoosh. I felt nervous, a real cold kind of nervous. Ice that locked up my spine. As Gloria made her way to the opposite side of the desk, I turned robotically to look at the Lewis. He had become all business.

“Legal formality requires I see everybody’s identification.” he said. I fumbled for my wallet, sorting through it clumsily to get my license. Abe and Maple took theirs from Maple’s purse and Gloria casually took hers from a small zipper pocket under her jacket’s collar. I slid it to Lewis. He gave them all a once-over and we took them back. 

“Very well, then. Let’s move on. You four are the only recipients outside Mrs. Caulfield’s family that were bequeathed possessions and such is the reason for a separate reading. Mrs. Caulfield was very specific about these following passages.” 

Lewis nodded towards the elders, ‘To Abe and Maple Roths, Mrs. Susan Caulfield has left her nineteen-seventy-three Chevrolet Camaro. It is bequeathed in ‘as-is’ condition and with the title already transferred and insurance left to the worry of the recipient, which is you, Mr. and Mrs. Roths.” 

Maple had her hands over her mouth. She turned dramatically to Abe, who grinned back, “She knew we always loved that car.” she said. 

“To my dear friend Helen, I leave my prized ivory horn.” Lewis reached into a desk drawer as he read and withdrew a yellowed horn of plenty, about the size of my fists put together. It was very obviously ivory, lacquered with many years of patina, “Since Mrs. Helen is no longer with us, the bequeathment is left to her oldest kin. It is left in ‘as-is’ condition and up to the recipient to formalize all legalities considering it’s material.” 

Lewis looked at the horn, then to me. He shrugged, “It’s over two hundred years old. I reckon its ivory status is protected by its antique status.” 

“Thank you.” I said. The thing weighed a ton, a lot more than it looked. I left it on the corner of the desk near me as Lewis continued. 

“And finally, Miss Gloria Marcotte. To you I leave my Jade necklace, that one you’ve always had your eyes on. I wish you the best in your future works.” Lewis took a long jewelry box from his desk and handed it to Gloria, “That’s what it says here.” 

The room stayed silent as Lewis’ sentence finished. He looked around, his expression suggesting finality. It took me a moment for the hint to set it. 

“Is that all?” I ask. 

“That is all. I need Abe and Maple here to stay for a few moments so we can sign some title paperwork, the rest of you are free to leave. Thank you very much and I’m sure the Caulfield estate appreciates it as well.” 

I gave Lewis a curt nod and spun on my heel, my ivory horn in my hand. I leaned considerably in its direction. I left without speaking, without making any eye contact. In the hall, I cut a sharp right towards the end farthest from the elevator. I stopped in front of a window just around the corner and waited. Above the sound of my thundering heart, I waited for the tell-tale elevator ding, a sign for all-clear. The office door opened and shut again. 

Gloria Marcotte. A tempered spike of shame stuck through my gut. It was the first time I’d heard her last name. I hadn’t ever even asked before. She had grown up into the perfect form of herself. Just as I imagined she would have. Everything about her was instantly recognizable. The green of her eyes, the summer yellow of her hair. The smoothness of her skin and warmth of her features. The shape of her body, the roundness of her developed breasts. The casual way in which she moved and the sound of her voice, now bolstered through puberty and adulthood. 

The window looked out over the city. Rooftops, grassy fields with playgrounds, old brick buildings and parking lots. The sky was still glassy and clean. Looking down at my new horn of plenty, I found it to be quivering in my hands. Another stake drew into me. Gloria, all grown up, was the pinnacle of beauty and here I was, a forty-year-old man quivering at its feet. Like a drunk high schooler too scared to run the bases. Too broken with everything else to face anything. 

The situation made me feel a hundred years old. 

I drew a deep breath in hopes of stabilization. It worked somewhat, enough for me to stand up straight, anyway. I rolled the horn around in my hands. I wondered, is this how those astronauts felt?

“You don’t have to hide from me.” 

My hands tightened around the horn so hard I was afraid it would shatter. My whole body shriveled up. Gloria’s voice rang through the hallway, spoken from around the corner. I didn’t turn to look. My breathing became ragged. It took me a long time to put words together into something sensical. 

“I...f-feel like I do.” I said. 

“Why?” 

A fine question. 

An easy question to answer. 

“I…” I began a lie, but stopped myself with a flashback. Again I was a ghost, a haunt of my old universe. I was looking at me and Gloria on my sofa. She gently kissed the back of my hand. The warmth of the moment, even through spectral memory, blanketed me. When I returned to my body, it had slid down the wall to sit with my legs out in front of me. 

“I’m scared.” I said. 

“Well…” said Gloria, “I guess I kinda am too. But…”

From around the corner came a hand. It was almost silly in how it presented itself. It was as low as I was. Palm up, it waited. Slender fingers, the skin smooth and pink at the creases. I hovered my hand over it, waiting for the world to catch up to us. It didn’t. I don’t think it even knows about us. So I gave in. My hand took hers. The warmth was incredible. Her pulse matched mine. I returned to what once was. The years again no longer existed. 

“It’s been such a long time.” said Gloria. 

“Ten years.” 

“I almost didn’t recognize you. I mean--I didn’t even expect you to be here.” 

“Wh-why would I be, right?” I swallowed a lump, “Susan Caulfield was a friend of my mother.” 

“She was my teacher.” said Gloria. 

“What do we do now?” I asked. 

The office door opened and closed. I heard Maple Roths’ voice. 

“Are you okay, dear?” 

“I’m fine.” said Gloria, “I ran all the way here, so I’m just taking a break. Thanks for worrying.” 

I imagined her smile. Not adult Gloria’s smile, but her as a twelve year old girl in a school uniform. That newborn star, her shining determination not to be sad. The breaking of our friendship out of obligation to social duty. The end of our universe. Yet--here we were, back in it. Again, two people, alone together. 

“I forced myself not to think about you.” I said after the elevator dinged us clear. 

“Me too.” said Gloria, whispering. 

“Gloria?” I said. I’m sure my voice betrayed any kind of any air of bravado. 

“Yeah?” 

“I’m sorry.” 

“For what?” 

“What I did to you.” 

“You didn’t do anything to me.”

“I…”

Gloria came around the corner, balanced on her knees. Her expression was a tight form of worry, lips pursed together. She came awfully close to me. Close enough to smell the shampoo in her hair. We fell into each other’s eyes for a bit. I forgot how to breath during it. Thankfully, Gloria remembered and with me shared the secret. Her lips were so soft, the kiss so delicate. There was no passion applied to it, only emotion. Only a message passed along through ten years of absence.

“You got so old.” she said, withdrawing. I laughed. 

“So did you.” 

She squeezed my hand again. I asked myself: who am I? 

“I heard your car broke down?” 

Gloria nodded, “It’s a piece of shit.” 

I searched her eyes, the tip of her nose, the texture of her lips and the whites of her teeth. The roundness of her cheeks and the smooth-silk of her hair. Her eyes shimmered like water. I smiled. 

“Are you hungry?”


	4. The Long Look Back

I somehow fell into a dream. 

That’s all it could be. For ten years I’ve been working on a life outside of that summer with Gloria, an escape from not only the social guilt but the love I had found with her. When you stay away from something for long enough you forget what it’s really like, forming only foundations of what you remember it to be, a brew always much cheaper than the original batch. I’d brought myself to a point where my time with Gloria was a dreamy bit of memory, something I avoided outright but indulged in only through how I remembered it to feel.

It was nothing compared to the real thing. I’d stepped back into the dream, forcing my way through the alabaster skin around our old universe. With Gloria riding in the passenger seat, with the taste of her kiss still on my lips, it was as though no time had passed at all. When I look at her, sitting so casually, I see not only the woman she’s become but the child I yet loved. I wondered how different the two were and if it even mattered. My arms were covered in pins and needles and there was a lump in my gut I couldn’t remove. 

“So, are you in Indiana now?” asked Gloria. I nodded.

“What do you do? For a living, I mean.” 

“Office stuff.” I said, “Real boring.” 

“Good pay though?” 

“Good enough.” 

“Can’t be that great.” said Gloria, “If you’re driving around in an Impala.” 

“Didn’t you say your car broke down?” I asked. Gloria laughed. 

“You got me there.” she said. 

The road turned wide into the big parking lot that housed both the Denny’s and it’s adjoining strip mall. Gloria put both hands on the dashboard as we turned. Like the better part of the ride, we cruised the lot in silence. I hunted for an empty spot and Gloria watched the restaurant like a curious lion. Once the car had stopped and the engine off, we both sat like worried statues. The dream continued around me. 

“Just like old times.” said Gloria. Thank god she spoke up. 

“Just like.” I said. 

A skinny black lady greeted us as we walked into the Denny’s. She had long curly hair that was pulled into a neat ponytail. Both her and Gloria froze at the sight of each other, than the black girl smiled nervously. 

“Gloria.” she said. 

“Margaret.” said Gloria. 

I stayed in the background, just Gloria’s little shadow as Margaret lead us to our booth. It was two booths down from the one ten years ago. Margaret gave us our menus. 

“Your waitress will be with you shorty.” she said. 

“I thought you were friends?” I asked, pointing in Margaret’s direction. 

“We kinda lost track of each other in high school.” said Gloria, “She started dating and drinking and I dunno, I wasn’t into the party scene. I think this is the first time we’ve seen each other in six years.” 

“At least you remembered each other’s names.” I joked. Gloria laughed. Gloria laid her menu out on the table in front of her, looking it over with her hands on her knees. She would occasionally brush her hair behind her ears. An arrow struck my heart, some kind of sick Cupid revenge. 

“H-how have you been?” I asked her. 

“Good.” she said. 

“You’re going to college, I take it?”

She nodded. 

“The state university?” 

“Just down the highway.” 

“I’m glad to hear that.” I said, “Is that where you met Susan? Uh, Mrs. Caulfield, I mean?” 

“She was my Chem 1 teacher back when I was a freshy. College. I liked talking to her and she liked helping people, I dunno. Our relationship was really anything special. Just a teacher and her student. I was pretty surprised when I heard that she died and left me something.” 

“I guess you meant more to her than you thought.” 

“Guess so.” 

The waitress came to take our order. I got a stack of pancakes and Gloria a chicken-fried steak. She leaned her cheek into her palm to look out the window. I stared at my hands. I watched the joints as my fingers moved. The dream was intensifying. Was I really here? Was this really Gloria? 

“I thought about us a lot.” said Gloria. She talked to the window more than to me, “Over these past ten years.”

I didn’t say anything. 

“After that last night, for a while, I was a wreck. My mom didn’t know, the world didn’t know, only me. I really did love spending time with you. I liked being with you.” 

“Me too.” I said. I closed my hands into fists. My lungs nearly popped with my next deep breath. I exhaled as smoothly as I could. 

“I’m so sorry.” I said. 

“For what?” asked Gloria. 

“For what I did to you.” 

Gloria shut her eyes, “What exactly do you think you did to me?” 

“I think I hurt you.” 

There was a sustained silence until our food came. Gloria opened her eyes only as her dinner was put before her. We thanked the waitress and proceeded to stare at our food. Gloria turned up a gentle stare, the kind of gaze that was born more from worry than anything else. 

“At any point in time did I express to you that I was being hurt? I never objected to what we did. You were always very considerate in that way. And remember, I was the one who came to you.”

“Why?” 

“I was lonely. So were you, right?” 

“That doesn’t mean it had to...had to cross the line.” 

“Does it matter? I loved it. I loved being with you. It felt good in all ways, so what? I didn’t get…” 

Gloria peered around nervously, then leaned in close, “I didn’t get pregnant or anything.”

“But still...you were twelve.” 

“Is this about morality?”

Was it? What were my worries? What the stem of my problem? To have sex with a twelve year old was something so harshly forbidden in the world, but it was done. To affect a child with such adult emotions is also something taboo but I did that too. Words fell like blocks and constructed my thoughts. 

“I think I made you grow up too fast.” I said. 

“You didn’t do that to me.” said Gloria, “The world did that to me. My junkie father and absentee mother did that to me. If anything, you helped me cope.” 

“I feel guilty about it, though.” 

“Oh, so it is about morals.” Gloria sighed. She took a deliberate bite of her chicken-steak, then spoke with her mouth full, “Look--you said you loved me. Was that true?” 

“It was.” 

“Then that’s it. If there was no negative consequence, why make one?” 

“Did you love me?” I asked. I didn’t mean to. I just did. Like when there’s an error in the binary and the wrong information is displayed. Gloria rubbed her fingers through her hair. 

“Maybe I did.” she said, “I can’t be sure. I didn’t know much about sorting emotions back then.” 

“Oh, well--right there. That’s what I’m talking about. Emotionally. You didn’t know, I could’ve hurt you and--” 

“Just shut up.” said Gloria, “I’m fine, you’re fine, the world is fine. You’re an office guy, I’m a college student, it’s fine. Did you think I was an idiot back then? Just because I didn’t know how to put shit together didn’t mean I couldn’t understand the implications. I knew was sadness was, what hurt was. And over the years, I’ve been able to make sense of it and I’m fine. The real question here is: are you?” 

Gloria. 

Gloria Marcotte. The sweet little girl now all grown up. A young adult, a woman. If I stared at her long enough, she began to change back, to shrink down to what I remember. To defy the logic of time and space and return to a point already passed. This was Gloria. I was here, in the dream, with Gloria. I hated myself just then for the tears that came out. 

“I’m not.” I said, “I’m really not.” 

Gently, Gloria reached across the table to wipe my cheeks with a napkin. I couldn’t help but laugh one of those inappropriate chortles that seem to be a natural defense against emotional tension. 

“I’m still your friend.” she said. She had the most beautiful, bittersweet smile on her face, “And I’ve always wanted to tell you that.”


	5. The Moon Fields

It’s purple dusk when we leave the restaurant. The impending night creates cool, hollow winds. The streetlights are already on and the parking lot is a sheet of orange. I stretch the small of my back. Gloria stands beside me and stretches her arms over her head. 

“How long are you in town?” she asks. 

“I took the week off.” I said. My only vacation this year--I didn’t tell her that. I stuck my hands in my pockets and looked up at the sky. That dream I’d fallen into had yet to cease. Perhaps wavered, weaked around the edges, but continued all the same. 

“You want a ride back to your car?” I ask, starting into the lot. A dozen steps in and I notice Gloria isn’t following. She’s instead looking up at the sky, standing also with hands in her pockets. 

“It’s pretty late.” she said. 

“So, a ride home instead?” 

Gloria considers her options, then reveals to me the same coy kind of look borrowed from herself ten years prior. She takes wide steps to grab my hand. 

“Give me the keys.” she says, “I want to go somewhere.” 

“Where?” 

“It’s a secret.” she says. At the car, she fishes through my pockets to find the keys, moving so quickly that I don’t have time to react. Without an reason to argue, I simply take my place in the passenger seat. She futzes around for a few moments, adjusting the seat and mirrors. The dream continued, furthering the surreal nature by witnessing Gloria driving. Before this week, I would close my eyes to see Gloria as a bright-eyed, yellow-haired twelve-year-old girl looking up at me with a shimmery kind of smile. Now that girl was a woman, her edges dulled by the world but still sharp and she was driving my car. 

She spun around the radio dial until settling on Trent Dabb’s ‘Nobody’s Stranger Anymore’. It was such a slow song, I almost fell asleep during the drive. The city was a flood of different lights, the setting sun a far-off array of orange and pink. The last stray sunbeams floated through the buildings and made bizarre shadows over the sidewalks. The people walking, driving, sitting, they all were faceless mannequins just filling space. The dream was a puff of cotton, a cloud in which I suddenly decided to ride across the bounds of then and now. 

“Did your mother ever ask about me?” I asked. Gloria gave me a look, which made me laugh. 

“I mean--did she ever show any signs of knowing?” 

“Not one.” said Gloria, “I love my mom, but she was more focused on keeping a roof over our heads than anything else. A tragic situation, really.” 

“I’m sorry.” I said. Gloria shook her head. 

“Shut up.” 

Gloria drove us out past the city roads, nearing the limits. She pulled onto an old dirt path that drove off into a stretch of fields that used to be an industrial park. The skeletons of old brick buildings sat stalwart in the crabgrass. The farther we went from the city, the more the darkness of the day became apparent. The sickly orange-red of typical nighttime city light pollution began to fade and as the sky bled out the last of its dusk, stars started to appear. 

“We’re here.” said Gloria, pulling the car to a stop. I hadn’t even been paying attention to where we were going. I ambled out of the car after her. Together we walked a narrow path upwards. Gloria used her phone as a light. It led us to a knobby little jetty that overlooked the abandoned industrial parks we’d just drove through. They were swimming in fresh-silver moonlight. The shadows were cool, hard creatures over the grass. Gloria sat on the cliff’s edge in a way that suggested this wasn’t her first time here. I sat next to her. My heels knocked against the dirt. 

“It’s beautiful.” I said. Gloria nodded. 

“I’ve never had anybody to show it too.” she said, “I found it a few years ago while biking around. I’ve come here a lot since then. It’s quiet and you can see more stars.” 

“Nothing like this in the city.” 

“How about in Indiana?” 

I opened my mouth, but hesitated. I scanned every inch of the town I was in and the map that resulted showed a lot of blank spaces. I narrowed my eyes apologetically. 

“I wouldn’t know.” I said, “I don’t...I don’t explore much.” 

“Ah. Well, here you are.” 

“Here we are.” I said, “You really never brought anybody here?” 

“I’m not good at talking to people.” said Gloria. 

“You talk to me okay.” 

“That’s because it’s you.” 

My heart beat with the pain of deja vu. Gloria turned her head from me, looking over the fields of moonlight. It was like the surface of another planet. I had arrived, somehow. 

“I wanna tell you a story.” said Gloria, “It’s in no way at all relatable, though.’ 

“Okay.” I couldn’t help a smirk. Gloria talked without looking at me. 

“There’s a girl in a mirror, a reflection of another person. These two people are actually the same, but neither wants that to be the case because if it were true, they’d be alone. This girl is a small child, about maybe five. The mirror is her grandmother’s big bathroom vanity. Through the walls she can hear her mother crying. She can hear the television and the idle conversation of her family all gathered to help the situation. 

Every reflective surface brought the two girls face-to-face. She only knew this girl in the opposite world and both shared so many interests that it was a no-brainer that they’d become friends. Friends to help push away that anger, sorrow and misery that losing a father brings. To fight against the world when it bares its fangs. Sometimes other people would step into the reflection, joining the girls for that fleeting time between arrival and vanishment but in the end it was always the same--the girl was her only friend. 

A latchkey lifestyle, a school full of people without faces. Teachers who are only academic. Countless conversations carried on only out of social formality and necessity. The world was a empty place. B-but the girl didn’t want it to be. She wanted it to be as full and as fresh as it was in the books she read or the movies she watched. She wanted it to feel as beautiful as the music she liked. So, she tried. She told her friend in the mirror, ‘I’m going to try.’ 

Then the years happened. She made a few on-and-off friends. You know, kids close enough enough only to know their first names and maybe what stupid television shows they liked. The girl found herself running the long corridor, each step making her grow a little more. The mirrors on the sides showed her friend keeping pace, never slowing, always there. 

Then, one summer, something happened: the two girls became one. Whether it was a spurt of maturity or something hormonal or maybe even a stroke of a vengeful god, the girl was a full, lonely person. She’d never known loneliness like this.”

Gloria took in a deep breath. She wiped her face with her sleeve, “No matter how long and hard she stared into the mirror, the reflection refused to answer anymore. The girl tried to fill to the space with as many one-timers as she could, with arts and crafts and media but the world remained empty. Then a bell rang.”

At the analogy, I looked up. Gloria was still turned away from me. 

“One night, doing laundry alone in an apartment building, she saw somebody. A man who looked tired. Who looked as far away as she felt. Nobody knows why, especially the girl, but she broke the barrier to speak with him. To converse with him and hear his voice. To gather courage enough to return to him a lost sock. 

All during the next day, she heard the bell ringing. A sustained bit of metaphorical noise that filled the space more than anything else. When night came, she sat on her bed and wondered what her life would be like if she were to just go for it, to follow the sound to the source--so she did. It was the bravest thing she’d ever done.”

Gloria took another deep breath. For a long while she stared out over the fields. I waited, perched in the mood until the moment was right, then I spoke up. 

“Did it turn out okay for her?” 

“She became friends with that guy.” said Gloria. Her voice wobbled, but never broke, “They shared so much time together, alone in their universe at night, just two people that filled each other’s lives. They shared their bodies, their minds. The girl found a peace within it, a quell to the hollow storm. Even when summer ended and their time with it, she was in a new world...a world…”

Gloria’s hand found mine, “A world where nothing hurt anymore.” 

Her hand was strikingly warm. It was also shaking slightly. I looked down at the tips of my shoes, then the sky. Gloria hadn’t turned to look at me. 

“That was a beautiful story.” I said, “You’re a good storyteller.” 

She said nothing. 

“Can I tell you a story?” 

No verbal response, but a squeeze of the hand. 

“Imagine a kid without a father. He never had one. Imagine this kid, he was always kind of an outcast. Socially fucked. It was nobody’s fault, it’s just how it was. This kid, he tried his best--always--to be a part of the world around him but eventually, he just found it easier to spread his arms and create a universe for himself. Like a bubble to contain him as he ventured life. 

He never really let anybody into it. He never knew relationships, of any kind. He was a speck of dust. Dust that grew up into a puff cloud of social responsibility. Nobody ever questioned it, wondered about it. So long as he was doing the bare minimum not even his family worried over him. This kid, this adult, was just waiting for life to pass him by. 

But then, he too heard a bell ring and the sound carried so easily through his bubble he had no choice but to accept it. To love it. To truly, truly love it. Then after the sound ended, he was again alone, but bolstered with the idea that he could be better. The sound made him better. So many years later, he...he’s not sure anymore if he can hear it or what the sound even was.” 

A distant shadow in the field stood up from its pool. I recognize it as the one from my dream. It doesn’t say anything, it doesn’t move, but it’s presence is known. 

“What a world, huh?” says Gloria. Both her and I look at each other at the same time. Her sparkling green eyes are blurry with tears. I’m sure I’m not much better. She pushes up and kisses me. I hope she can hear the bell sounding as well as I can. It exceeds the dream. 

She lays her head on my shoulder and into the night we sit, looking out across the silver fields of our universe reborn.


	6. Broken Down and Found

Through the night, the dreamed eased back to reality and when I woke up, everything had settled like sand in still water. I awoke in my hotel room. Morning light drifted through the part in the curtains. I raised my hands and they seemed to be unchanged. Everything did, but the dream had ended. This was...this was real again. It had always been, right? 

Next to me, warmth stirred. Gloria faced me on her side, sleeping with her arms around her pillow. She was wearing only her cotton-white underwear and tee-shirt. She was close enough to me that when I turned my head, I could feel her breathing. I had never seen her asleep before. She looked so calm, as tranquil as a sunbathing cat. Her mouth was open just slightly, enough to show off her pearly whites. 

I sat up to look at the rest of her. Her skin was impeccably smooth. She’d kicked off her side of the blankets, making a tussle of them around her feet. I sat and watched her breath for a bit, putting myself back together through the morning drowsy. Contrary to what the scene looked like, Gloria and I didn’t do anything sexual last night. This was the end result of staying out too late at the moon fields and Gloria not wanting to go home yet. From Gloria, I look up, across the room and at the door. I stare at the peephole until the world stops and does a jump-cut to nine hours ago. 

 

My keycard lets us in. Gloria crosses the threshhold, head on a swivel. She threw her jacket onto the dresser and sat on the end of the bed, knees and hands together. I sit next to her. We stare at our reflection in the television. 

“This feels nice.” she says.

“Like old times.” I said, “Are you sure you don’t want a ride home?” 

I asked, but desperately didn’t want her to go. Thankfully, she shakes her head. 

“I don’t have any classes for a few days. I’m good.” 

“What about work?” 

“Not today.” said Gloria. 

“You smell good.” I said. Gloria laughs.

“You creep.” she playfully shoves me. I return the gesture and she strikes back, leading to a quick one-two bout of horseplay. It ends with Gloria locking her knees around my hips and pinning herself over me, my head on the pillows. Her hands are by my ears. Her earrings hang freely, her hair surrounds her face. She really is amazingly beautiful. Growing up did nothing but favors for her. She was the pinnacle of natural beauty with enough of an adorable smattering of hometown girl to further sharpen her attraction. Her expression becomes serious. 

“You wanna fool around?” she asks. I smile and put a hand on her cheek. 

“Not really.” I said. 

“Me neither.” said Gloria. She flopped down next to me, putting her head on my shoulder. She starts to rub my palms with her thumb. 

“I still remember what it felt like to have you inside me.” she says. 

“I remember what it felt like to be inside you.” 

“Tight, huh?” Gloria interlocks our fingers, “You were the first person I ever had sex with.” 

I opened my mouth and Gloria softly slapped her hand over it. 

“If you say you’re sorry I’ll knock you unconscious.” she shut her eyes, “I really enjoyed sleeping with you. You know, I’ve had sex a few times between now and then. None of it was as good. Ooh--that tingly little bundle of awesome right here in my belly…” 

Gloria smacked just beneath her belly button, “Just right. You know?” 

“Remember butt play?” I asked. Gloria smiled sleepily. 

“You were so obsessed with butts.”

“With your butt.” I corrected, “Though...I guess all butts are nice.” 

“A weird life when a childhood memory is putting a butt plug into your older friend’s butt.” 

“Butt butt butt.” I said, wearing out the word. Both Gloria and I laughed. She blended it into a yawn. 

“I’m getting tired.” she said, nesting closer, “What time is it?” 

I thumbed on my phone and showed it to her. She yawned again. 

“I’m gonna fall asleep.” she said. 

I gave her hand a squeeze before sitting up. I used the bathroom and swapped out my slacks for sweats. When I returned, Gloria was sitting up on the end of the bed. I just about asked her if she wanted me to get a cot for her, but decided that I would rather have her next to me, even if we were a little squished. I turned off the lights around the room, giving Gloria the hint. 

She stood up, kicked out of her shoes and shimmied off her jeans. I sat behind her and watched. As they hit the floor, she noticed my gaze and turned over her shoulder to look. She gave me a little one-two shake of the butt. Her arms vanished into her shirt and after a moment of fidgeting around, reappeared with her bra. It was a silky pink with blue flowers, a stark contrast in design when compared to her panties. 

“You’ve stopped matching your underthings.” I said. 

“I never did.” said Gloria. She neatly folded her clothes into a stack on her jacket. I scratched at my chin. 

“I always remember you wearing plain underclothes.” 

“I didn’t wear a bra back then.” said Gloria, “Didn’t really need one.” 

“I see. Simpler times.” 

“No kidding.” Gloria took handfuls of her breasts, “These girls sometimes drive me crazy.” 

“They seem nice enough.” 

Gloria shot me a look from the corners of her eyes, then turned sharply to face me and lifted her shirt enough to expose herself. Her breasts were young and round, a perfect example of natural wonder. Her nipples pink and pert, overall just an amazing display. I nodded sternly and gave her a curt round of applause, to which she blushed and fell into bed with laughter. 

Before I turned off the last bedside light, Gloria found her phone and held it above us sideways. I hardly had time to set an expression before the picture was taken. The lighting of the room set us in shadowy gold, but our faces were clear and Gloria at least was smiling. 

“Our first picture together.” she said. 

She laid the phone on the nightstand and there it slept. I stare at it now, chisling into my long-term a reminder to ask Gloria to send it to me when she wakes up. 

After readying myself, I sit in the chair opposite the bed, part watching Gloria sleep and part browsing the net. The thought to take a picture occured to me just a few minutes before Gloria woke up and I couldn’t have had better timing. I snapped a shot of her lying on her back, belly exposed, one arm under her pillow and the other at her side. It was like the cover to a teenage fantasy. 

Gloria woke up and went right to the bathroom without speaking a word. In the quiet, I heard her peeing and she returned as cheerful as a bird. 

“Good morning.” she said. I got a kiss on the cheek before she began hopping into her pants. I returned the sentiment. 

“Wanna go get breakfast?” I asked. 

“Sure--but not Denny’s.” she pulled her shirt around her neck to put her bra back on. I noticed, somehow, that it snapped in the front, “Maybe just a drive through? Then we can eat in the parking lot.” 

“Really? Why not inside?” 

“I’m just thinking what’ll be more fun, that’s all.” said Gloria. She smiled and I was sold. 

\--- 

Gloria was right, however: eating in the car was a lot of fun. We went through a McDonald’s then parked in the nearby lot of a grocery store. I can’t remember a more enjoyable outdoor meal. Eating with Gloria, making fun of the people walking around, just being together with her in such a personal way and creating such a wonderful memory...it was amazing. 

“I guess I should do something about my car.” said Gloria as she consolidated our trash into one bag, “Can I get a ride?” 

“You don’t have to ask.” I said, “Just tell me where it is.” 

She did and we were off. She’d lost it out on Vermun Road, which was a narrow little alleyway of a street that ran parallel to the second big vein across the city. It was a popular thoroughfare for people looking to either take their time or try to save some. Gloria had been trying to do the latter in her rush to Lewis the Lawyer’s office and her engine decided that enough was enough. 

“It’d been acting up pretty bad all last week.” she explained, “I kept putting off bringing it in. You know, things just kept happening. I had midterms and work and my mom was out of town so I couldn’t really ask her for help, ugh.” 

“Sometimes that’s life.” 

“Sometimes life sucks.” 

I nodded, “Sometimes it does.”

She’d managed to get the vehicle off the road, at least. It was pulled into a grassy little cove that bordered a nearby construction yard. Birch trees and thick tufts of grass kept it company. It was a 2004 Toyota Corolla and if you’d have told me it had been abandoned here years ago, I would have believed you. Rust chewed at all the edges, the frame sagged so low to the ground I was amazing there skid on the pavement. It was a a olive-green disaster. Gloria must have read my epression because she nodded knowingly as she stood next to me. 

“Cheapest car I could find.” she said, “A cool thousand off Craigslist.” 

“You paid a thousand dollars for this?” 

“Yep.” Gloria popped the P in the word, “But I never put any money into it, so it kept it’s value.” 

I rolled my head to look at her and we both laughed. 

“Well, let’s take a look.” 

I opened the hood and peered around. I wasn’t an expert with engines, but I knew enough to at least figure the basic construction and what, if anything, was wrong. Gloria leaned in with me, pointing at various tubes and belts and telling me what they were supposed to do. 

End diagnosis: it was junk. 

“The way I see it.” I said, clapping the dust from hands, “You can either get it towed to a shop or get it towed to the dump.” 

“How about we just leave it here?” 

“They’ll hunt you down for it.” I said, “You did register it, right?” 

Gloria squatted on her heels, chin in palms, “I did.” 

A red pickup drove by. Both Gloria and I turned our heads to follow it as it passed. 

“What it we scraped off the numbers and took the plates? Then could we leave it?” 

“I guess we could, but...that’s a lot of work, huh?” 

Gloria lowered her head, becoming egg-shaped. 

“A tow is expensive.” she said, “So is junking it.” 

“I’ll--” 

In a burst, Gloria stood up. She turned defiantly towards me, “No you won’t.” I showed her my palms. 

“I won’t what?” 

“Pay for it. I won’t let you.” 

“Glory, come on--”

“Did you just call me ‘Glory’?” 

“I guess I did.” 

She made a dissatisfied sound before continuing, “Look, I am so happy to be here together again with you. I don’t want this reunion to turn you into some kind of sugardaddy.” 

I took a moment to look at the sky. It was as blue as ever. A few contrails cut through here and there. When I looked down, a yellow highlander was driving by. Again, both me and Gloria turned our heads to follow it. 

“Let’s just call the tow people.” she said, “I’ll figure it out. I have the money, I hope.”

Gloria took her phone from her pocket and looked at it. It must have said something cutting to her because she slumped her shoulders and hung her head. 

“It’s dead.” she said, “I didn’t charge it last night.” 

Without speaking, I unlocked my phone and handed it to her. She thanked me with a smile and went about searching for a tow number. She shut her eyes when she dialed and didn’t open them until the call was over. She was pretty courteous about it. It was interesting to see her handle the situation, just another reminder that she was in fact a grown woman now. 

“They said half an hour.” she told me. 

“Then we wait.” I said. We sat ourselves on the ground, backs against her car. The shade curled over us. We continued to look up at and follow any car that drove by. At some point, Gloria held up my phone in front of us sideways and snapped a picture. I had a chance to smile this time and also enjoyed the warmth of her head on my shoulder. She brushed some hair behind her ears as she went to evaluate the shot. 

“What is this?” she asked. She looked at me with an amazed smile, showing me the picture I’d taken of her sleeping. I laughed and feigned ignorance towards the sky. 

“You really are a creep!” she said. She punched my arm playfully. Her smile persisted as she continued to evaluate the picture. She shut her eyes and cuddled against me, returning my phone to my hands. 

“Since it’s the only picture of a human on your phone I’ll let you keep it.” she said, “A souvenir to masturbate to later.” 

“I would never do that to do.” I said. It was an honest answer to a jokey situation. There was a little bit of regret after I said it, enough to make me look at my feet instead of Gloria. The hesitant silence between my last word and her next one was enough to tell me it had affected her somehow. 

“Why wouldn’t you?” she asked. 

“Feels weird.” I said. 

“You haven’t up to this point? In ten years, you haven’t...you know, used -memory- to get off?”   
“Have you?” I asked. 

“I have.” said Gloria, “Did you think about me when you have sex? With other people, I mean.” 

I stayed quiet. I suddenly felt very old and very feeble. A blue Honda passed. Only I followed it. Gloria leaned around to meet my eyes, then nodded once she understood. 

“Lonely people.” I said, “Well--lonely guy, anyway.” 

“I’m sorry.” said Gloria. She scrunched up her nose, “If it makes you feel better, all the guys I was with were just...I dunno...sex. There wasn’t anything there, I just wanted to feel good. But then...I don’t know.” 

She squeezed my hand. It felt pretty good. She cuddled up again. 

“I like being with you, Gloria.” I said, “Being with you is like putting something back, you know? How we met, what we were or are--does it matter? I just like being with you.” 

I could feel Gloria snort a silent laugh. 

“When we get around to it…” she said, “You aren’t even gonna last a minute inside me.”


	7. All Roads lead Home

Gloria asked the tow truck man if we could ride in her car as it was being moved. After a few minutes of smile-flashing and general friendliness, the guy agreed and the scene shifted to her and I sitting in the backseat of the old Corolla as it rumbled down the highway. I slumped low in the seat, with Gloria laying across the rest of it, head in my lap. The scenery rolled on by with the sky remaining static. I drifted into a hazy daydream state and when I’d returned, I found that I’d begun stroking my fingers through Gloria’s hair. It was just as silken as you’d imagine.

“I have to work tomorrow.” she said, “Then I have classes.” 

Her tone was sullen. A familiar chord was struck, though the sound faded quick. 

“I have to be back to work on Monday.” 

“I’ll come see you tomorrow after work.” she said, “But after that...I don’t think I’ll have much time. My finals are coming up.” 

“Do you think we’re meant to be together?” I asked. It was not so much directed towards Gloria as it was the sky. 

“Sure we are.” answered Gloria, as the sky stayed conspicuously quiet, “Even if it doesn’t really feel like it.” 

“Gloria.” 

“Yes?”

The words ran full force from my throat to the tip of my tongue, then came to a screeching halt. My teeth closed them off, forcing a sullen retreat. I swallowed them away. 

“Weather sure is nice.” I said. 

“Sure is.” said Gloria. 

# # # 

Gloria’s apartment was top-corner in, of all places, our old building. I didn’t even realize it until we parked. A wave of bitter familiarity crashed over me as I stepped out of the car and for a second, not a single year had passed. I pointed at the structure and turned, amazed, to Gloria. 

“You live here?” 

“Cheapest place in town.” 

Gloria paid the tow man with two wrinkled twenties. Her expression was as sour as somebody saying goodbye to a puppy. I consoled her as I followed her inside. 

“I’ll be damned.” I said, “They did change the carpet.” 

Gloria checked her empty mailbox before we walked the stairs to her apartment. As she keyed the lock, I looked up and down the hall. 

“Which one did you live in before?” I asked. Gloria pushed open her door and pointed down towards the opposite end. 

“Last one that way.” she said, “You know, when I told my mom I got a place here, she asked why I’d want to live in a dump.” 

“It’s not that bad.” I said. 

Gloria made an unhappy sound. Her apartment smelled of her, that soapy natural smell. It was warm, too. That kind of gentle warmth that comes from a day’s worth of sunlight flooding through curtainless windows. An overstuffed faux-leather sofa faced an old flat screen television. A red blanket was thrown lazily on the floor. A trail of clothes lead from the living room to the bedroom, a mere four steps away. The size of the whole place was equal to mine way back when and the nostalgia was striking. 

I stood in the living room as Gloria made a line around the place. Her keys were dropped into a stout glass vase in the kitchen, her coat went on the back of the door and her shoes kicked off across the room. She stretched her arms high above her head before vanishing into the bedroom. She said something that faded away as it crossed the threshold and died in the aura of my distracted nostalgia. I blinked back to reality. 

“What did you say?” I asked, stepping over to the bedroom. I peered in just in time to see her pants slip down to her ankles. She turned over her shoulder to me, arms crossed in ready to remove her shirt. 

“I’m going to take a shower.” she said, “You can do whatever you want.” 

She lifted her shirt to her tummy before turning to me again, “You could also join me.”

She smiled coyly. Her shirt came up and off, then was flung unceremoniously into a nearby hamper. She scouted through the drawers of a wobbly dresser for some clean articles before approaching me. I got goosebumps as she did. Seeing her beauty almost completely unhindered by clothing removed me from my place on Earth and I feared for my being if I were to see it fully bare. Her body was made of gentle curves, her skin peachy-pink and smooth. She carried herself with absolute confidence, a woman who knew her beauty. She touched my cheek with her fingertips. 

“I didn’t bring any clothes.” I said. 

“You think you’ll need them?” 

If ever there was a time when an erection could break the sound barrier, it was now. Not even my teenage self could have produced results as well as this. The tone of her voice licked every exposed bit of me. 

“I...I, uh…” I laughed, “I bet you say that to all the guys.” 

Gloria’s expression turned serious. She shook her head sternly. 

“I don’t.” she said, “I haven’t ever had a guy here. All my flings were everywhere else.”

My phone began to ring. I tore it out of my pocket and nearly threw it across the room. Gloria burst into peals of laughter and I left her to it as I stepped across the apartment to answer. It was my sister. 

“How’d it go?” she asked. 

“Fine.” I said. 

“What Susan leave us?” 

I told her about the horn of plenty that was stuffed into my briefcase back at the hotel room. My sister pondered it for a bit. 

“You should get that appraised.” she said, “There’s a few antique shops in town, right?” 

“Sure are.” I said. 

“Well...let me know. Whatever its worth we have to split.” 

“And if it’s worthless?”

“You keep it.” 

I wrapped up the conversation with a few hellos to my nephews and a promise of souvenirs, which I told them weren’t going to be great considering the quality of tourism in the city but they didn’t care. After I’d hung up, I turned to go find Gloria, who had put herself in the shower. She’d left the door opened in invitation, which I accepted. 

God damn. 

Through the space between the curtain and tile I could see her. Fully grown Gloria naked was as spectacular as I could have ever imagined and even better wet. The roundness of her breasts, the pink and perk of her nipples, the curves of her hips as sloped to her legs. Water beaded in her hair and across her chest. It highlighted every wonderful feature. As she noticed me, she turned. I followed down past her breasts, across her stomach and to her hips. Her pubic hair was a dark gold, a heavy concentration of her natural color. It was the perfect accent to lips beneath it. After probably another ten years, I returned eye contact and Gloria was grinning. She waved me in. 

“Come on.” she said.

It was a little embarrassing to show her my body, like comparing an old prune to a ripe peach. I lost my breath as her hands touched my chest. Hot water poured over the both of us. The moment demanded I kiss her, so I did. She wrapped me in a hug. Her bare breasts against me were so soft, so goddamned soft I nearly cried. I’d forgot how soft she was. I felt her spine with my fingertips. 

“I missed this.” she whispered, “I didn’t even know I missed it this much.”

“Why me?” I asked. 

“Why me?” she returned. A distant bell sounded and from the dim apartment outside the bathroom, I saw my shadow move. It stood simply, watching, grinning. 

“Because you make me happy.” I said. Gloria answered by tightening her hug. 

“Wash me.” she said eventually, pushing away to get a loofa. She handed it to me full of suds and leaned back against me. I rubbed the thing across her shoulders and down her chest. It glided across her breasts and with my free hand I gently rubbed her nipples. A sharp exhale shocked me with sudden excitement. I moved up and down her arms, around her midsection and hips and leaned to get to her knees, leaving her body shimmery-slick. 

I dropped the loofa when she took my hand. It was lead to her vagina, where she put it to rest. It, like the rest of her, was ludicrously soft. As soft as my memories of her, maybe more. My fingers felt up and down the lips, spreading them at the end. Her nipple squeezed between my fingers. She’d shut her eyes. 

I slid a finger into her. As she tightened around it I almost came. I was beyond rock hard. My penis was a substance yet undefined by science, a thing so solid it could destroy the earth. Gloria sucked in a long breath as I began to finger her. I slipped another finger in, then another and began to move around as muscle memory dictated. She gripped my arm with both hands. As I pressed hard against her sweet spot, unchanged, her stomach sucked in and she grunted through clenched teeth. Her juices, hotter even than the water, gloss coated my hand. 

Her breathing became erratic as I sped up. I gripped her breasts almost violently. My dick rubbed against her ass and pleasure shot through me, teetering on the dangerous edge of cumming. 

“Harder.” whispered Gloria. I obliged. The heel of my palm slapped against her pubis and my fingers pressed hard into her to try and touch it. Gloria’s whole body went rigid. She lifted up onto her toes and air hissed through her teeth and out her nose in a moment of incredible release. At the end she couldn’t hold it anymore and she finished with a shout of ecstasy before melting back into my arms. She stood silent for a bit. Composure regained, she turned to me, tears in her eyes. 

“That was fucking awesome.” she said. 

“Best one in ten years?” I asked.

“My whole life.” 

She kissed me, then wrapped her hand around my dick.The warmth traveled up my body and removed me from the planet. She stroked up and down, never breaking the kiss. Her off hand rubbed my chest, the perfect compliment. She slid her hand to the base and touched the balls with her pinky finger before returning to the tip. She cupped the head for a half-second, applying pressure in a way only she could. There was no way I could last any meaningful length of time. She sped up and after another half-minute, I came. Hot, furious pleasure became me, filling my nerves and brain. WIth the taste of her breath on my tongue I came. Harder than ever before. Endless amounts of cum blew out of me, most lost to the drain but some sticking to Gloria’s thighs. 

After I returned to Earth, we both looked down at it. 

“Some things never change.” said Gloria before bursting into laughter. I joined her in it, both of us suddenly reborn and yet somehow exactly the same.


	8. The Search for Value

“Where do you work?” 

“Westfield Diagnostics. Technician.” 

“So you collect pee all day?” 

“Pretty much. A good foot in the door for after graduation, though.”

“What are you majoring in?” 

“Chemistry.” 

“You’re too smart for me, Glory.” 

Gloria playfully smacked my leg, “Don’t call me that.” 

We were cuddled close on her sofa in our underwear. The apartment was quiet. Not even the sounds of the city dared bother us. 

“Sorry.” I said. 

“I hate nicknames.” said Gloria, “My grandfather always used to nickname people and he was an asshole. Called my mom ‘Soppy’ all the time.” 

“What’s her actual name?” 

“Sophia.” 

“That’s a dumb nickname anyway. It doesn’t make any sense.” 

“Sure doesn’t.”

I laughed, “Maybe one day I could meet your mom.” 

“She has a good memory. She’d probably recognize your face.”

“I didn’t see her much back then.” I said, “As you may know, I’m not much of a people person.” 

“I’m a person.” said Gloria. 

“You’re the only person.” I corrected, which earned a smile. 

The quiet focused over us for a long while. 

“What does it mean to love somebody?” asked Gloria. Her whisper hung like a cloud in the atmosphere. 

“It means…” 

I hesitated. The answer I’d instinctively prepared sounded suddenly wrong. I squeezed her hand as the mood intensified. As I explored then the depths of my humanity, I felt less and less human myself and more a collection of bones and guts with just enough wherewithal to understand certain things. To understand that this other collection of bones and guts next to me was something vitally important despite being so hopelessly organic and miniscule. 

“I don’t know.” I said. 

“Sometimes I wish it was easier.”

“What was?” 

“Being human.” 

“You and me both.” 

More silence. Enough to remove the room around us. We drifted aimlessly through our own space and time. 

“Even though it’s been ten years, we’re still this close. We still just fit together. That counts for something, right?” 

“Is that what it is, then? Just chemistry?” 

“I hope so.” said Gloria, “I’m good at that.” 

“I...I like being around you. I like the warmth of your body. I like the sound of your voice and listening to your thoughts and ideas. I like you as a whole person.” 

“You make me feel safe.” said Gloria, “Not in a ‘Knight and Princess’ way, but more that you’re a reminder, a constant in my existence. These past ten years, I’ve thought about you a lot. During the hard times, during high school, during my first years of college. My first boyfriend...my relationships, I always came back to you and when I saw you again, I realized: I missed you.” 

Gloria chuckled, “I’d be pretty upset if you died.” 

“That’s the definition of love, then.” I said, “You’d miss somebody if they died.” 

“You think?” Gloria pondered it, “Well...maybe.” 

“There’s just one thing I can’t figure.” I said, “Why me and you? Why did the universe tilt us together? A twelve-year-old and a thirty-year-old, why did we come together when the world rejects it so much?” 

“Maybe there is no ‘world’.” said Gloria, “Maybe it’s just…”

“Just what?”

“Just us.” 

Suddenly, the apartment reappeared. Gloria sat up straight, turning her head to look at the digital clock on the floor beneath the television. She grinned sheepishly.

“I have to work in the morning.” she said, “I’m sorry.” 

“No, no.” I replied, holding up my hands, “I understand.” 

I got dressed as Gloria watched. She walked to the door and as I stood in the frame, I felt a sudden ping of familiarity. I turned to her.

“The roles are reversed, huh?” I asked. 

“Summer’s over.” said Gloria. We laughed. 

“Have a good night, Gloria.” 

“You too.” 

She kissed my cheek and we parted ways. My hotel room felt exceedingly empty and noisy as fuck in comparison. Whatever sleep there was didn’t come too easy and when it did, I dreamt of my shadow, emerging still from the sunset light. This time, when it looked at me, it smiled a curvy, hollow grin. 

“Feels good to be happy.” it said. 

“Sure does.” I returned. 

# # # 

I slept in pretty late the next day. It was near noon when I finally got up and dressed. Without any other place to go and time to kill, I found Susan’s Horn of Plenty and struck out to town. Finding an antique shop wasn’t as easy as my sister had made it out to be. I drove around aimlessly for awhile, hoping to stumble across one through dumb luck. After three hours of no such thing happening, I instead found a local sandwich shop to appraise a meatball grinder. 

I took my soon-to-be heartburn to the nearby park, which was just a glorified patch of grass surrounded by banks. The shade was nice, though and made my lunch taste that much better. Sitting under that tree, I realized that times like this were perhaps unfairly rare in life. Not just my Walden meal, but the whole week. Reuniting with Gloria, being able to not only make amends but to also concrete a relationship on certain foundations, was as pleasant a dream as I’d ever had. 

The clouds idyllically floated across the pale blue sky. A kite strung up from somewhere and contrails faded behind the hum of a jet. I lost myself staring into the abyss and just as sleep began to gain power from nothing but carbs, a voice stabbed through it to force my eyes open. 

“Are you alright?” asked Maple Roths. She was accompanied by Abe Roth and both of them were wearing floppy wide-brimmed hats. 

“Oh, I’m fine.” I said, “Just enjoying the weather.” 

“Sure is a nice day for it.” said Abe, looking upward. 

“Abe and I just had to stop and go for a walk on such a nice day.” 

“Much rather be driving.” said Abe, “Nice new car and all.”

Maple gave her husband a stern look, to which his expression crumpled. 

“Ain’t too bad out here though.” 

“The Camaro?” I asked. 

Maple pointed over her shoulder, “That pink one there.” 

Parked curbside on the opposite corner of the park was a pink Camaro. It shimmered in the sun. 

“Real nice.” I said. 

“How about that lovely Ivory Horn?” asked Maple. 

“It’s nice too.” I said, “Been looking for a place to get it appraised. I kinda though there were more antique stores in this town. Guess they all went away since I was last here.” 

“There’s always Fran.” said Abe, “Been here since...well, aught-one, I’d say.” 

“She’s probably the last in town.” said Maple, “This city isn’t too much for antiques. Mostly just for tourists nowadays, which is a shame.” 

“Fran?” I asked. 

“Francine Delorè.” said Abe, “Runs a thrift down on Kellen Street.” 

I got to my feet, “Is she open today?” 

“Should be.” said Abe. 

“Tell her we sent you.” said Maple, “We’re friends.” 

“Kind of friends.” said Abe, “But good enough.” 

“Oh, we should have her over for dinner one of these days.” said Maple, “To catch up.” 

“Sounds great.” said Abe, again looking at the sky. 

Ignoring manners, I took out my phone and Googled Francine Delorè. Her name produced a million or so hits, but the first and most important was Here Again Thrifts, right where the Roths said it was. 

“Thank you very much.” I said. 

“Oh, our pleasure.” said Maple, “You have a good time.” 

# # # 

I set up my GPS lady to bring me home again and she guided me dutifully along the longest route. While most of my forward mind didn’t care too much, the interest in the back had spiked up at the new prospect of discovery. I drove with the windows down. The air became cooler as it sped through the interior. As I turned one of the last corners, a sign for Westfield Diagnostics caught my eye. Once the words had processed, an emergency signal was sent out to my feet and they liberally applied the brakes. Thank god nobody was behind me.

I stared down the building. A primal part of me wanted to overwrite everything else and stomp right inside to sweep Gloria off her feet, An Officer and a Gentlemen style. I imagined her in a lab technician’s coat worn over business casual and it made that primal bit thrum even more. It was obviously not the right answer, but hardly anything pleasurable ever is. 

I stared down the building in hopes of catching a glimpse of her. The odds were outstandingly against me, but hope springs eternal. The dream began to crowd the edges again as I realized once more that Gloria was a grown woman now. She held a job, paid her bills, had friends--she lived a complete life. I can’t explain why this struck me so ethereally, but it did. 

After a few lifetimes I started forward again, leaving Westfield in my rear-view mirror. Two blocks away was Here Again, a brick warehouse surrounded by empty lots. The parking lot was near empty, despite the neon sign assuring me it was open. I took my horn and breached the threshold. Inside was mostly empty space. Concrete floors full of holes that I only assumed were used to anchor awnings and partitions, as evidenced by a large four-post awning in the center that housed a wide variety of ancient things. 

I pushed an old rocker into action as I passed by it. A duo of grandfather clocks dutifully struck along at the correct time. Wicker baskets piled up on a large dresser with ornate trim and standing upright behind the folding-table counter was a tremendous claw-foot tub marked at a price with too many zeroes for me. An elderly lady sat reading an Agatha Christie novel behind the table. She was one of those thin, tall woman, the kind that could have easily headed up an old-west bordello or have been the strictest nun at the Catholic school. She peered up over her book and wire glasses as I approached.

“I’m looking for a Miss Delorè?” 

“Francine, please.” she said. She flattened her book on the table to provide her undivided attention, “How can I help you?”

“Maple and Abe Roths referred me.” I said, “They said you could appraise something for me.” 

“Old Maple, huh? How’s she doing?” 

“Seemed good to me.” I said. 

“Good, good. What’ve you got?” 

I put my Horn of Plenty on the table. At once, Francine Delorè’s eyes lit up. She adjusted her glasses and leaned over the piece, handling it like it was rigged to explode. 

“Where did you get this?” she asked. I explained the death of Susan Caulfield and the proceeding inheritance. Francine nodded without looking up at me. 

“The lawyer said it was Ivory.” I said, “And that since it’s so old it’s legal to own it.” 

“True, true.” said Francine, “It may well be ivory.” 

She turned the piece to look at the bottom before finally returning to me. 

“This needs to be looked at further.” she said, “May I ask to keep this overnight?” 

“You’re not gonna steal it, are you?” I asked. Francine’s expression went so taut I was afraid it would break. I held up my hands. 

“Just kidding.” I said, “Sorry. It’s fine. I’ll come back tomorrow?” 

“Leave me your phone number.” she said. I wrote it down on a notepad she produced that had the store’s name on it. 

“Thank you.” I said. 

“No.” said Francine, “Thank you.” 

# # # 

I took a different route back to my hotel to avoid Westfield. The ride wasn’t as nice, but still pleasant. I didn’t have much else to do or anywhere to go, so I just rented a movie on the hotel’s television and fell asleep watching it. It was just about twilight when I woke up. I had changed into my sweatpants and ordered a calzone from the a nearby pizzeria when there was a knock at the door. 

A bell rang. As I turned to it, the whole world narrowed to a distant tunnel. The knock was a quick little triple-beat, as adorable as it had always been.I looked down at my hands, then my feet as they carried me across the room. The doorknob was cool to the touch. I hesitated for a good while before opening the door. Long enough to get two more knocks. I had stepped through the portal back to the old universe. 

Gloria was in sandals and capris with a tank top that had a cartoon cloud on it. Her backpack was slung casually over a shoulder. She too must have felt the shift, as she gave me a smile brighter than any newborn star. I couldn’t help it. I hugged her. Her body was so warm, her hands so comforting as they returned the gesture. 

“Like old times.” I said. 

“Except even better.” she said back.


	9. The Night Together

Gloria’s bag was plump full. She threw it on the bed and we both watched it roll off. 

“I’m all caught up in my Lit class.” Gloria said as we went to retrieve it. 

“Good job.” I said. 

“That means I don’t have any classes until two tomorrow.” she returned the bag to the bed and gave it a pat, “Mucho me and you time.” 

“Are you sure?” I asked. 

Gloria waved it off, “Lit is just a filler class. A silly graduation requirement I just put off too long.” 

“Works for me, then.” I said, “So, all of that is clothes?” 

“Yep.” 

“Seems like a lot.” 

“We have a bad habit of getting messy.” Gloria said coyly. 

“I guess we do.” I said, “Are you hungry? I order a calzone.” 

“No, thanks.”

“We can get something else.” I offered. Gloria thought about it. 

“What’s the room service here like?” she began to scout around for a menu. 

“I don’t think there is any.” I said. 

“Phoo.” she said. She sat flop on the couch. As I sat next to her, she leaned onto me. 

“Stuck waiting for the pizza guy.” she said. 

“We could do some buttplay again.” 

“What a tease.” said Gloria. She stared thoughtfully for a few moments, “I wonder why we’re together like this again. Same as before.”

“Destiny.” I said, “Or just because.” 

“Because what?”

I shrugged, “Because it just is.” 

“So, no reason?” 

“Does there have to be?” 

Gloria closed her eyes, “I guess not. Hey--maybe in ten years we could meet up again for another night together.” 

“Soon than that, I hope.” 

More silence. 

“What…” said Gloria, “What do you think our future is?” 

“I don’t know.” I said. I honestly hadn’t given it much thought. After tonight, we’d return to our individual lives, separated by eight hundred miles and the universe besides. Maybe it would be another ten years, though the thought of returning to a place now without Gloria felt hollow. 

“Do you want to be with me?” I asked, “I mean--have a life with me?” 

“Marriage, kids and all that?”

“Not really that cookie-cutter, but just...I don’t know, existing together. Find a nice house, grow old together. Older.” 

“Maybe.” said Gloria, “I never thought of a future like that. I hardly think about the future at all. I know what I’m doing now, sure, but eventually that just turns into what I’m shooting for. The future is now, you know what I mean?” 

“I kinda get it.” 

“I never imagined having kids, let alone planned on it. I’d don’t think I’d like it. All that pregnancy nonsense--please. Nevermind I don’t think I’d be a great mother.”

“Why not?” 

Gloria smiled sardonically, “Hey kids, let me tell you how I met your father: I followed him back to his apartment when I was twelve and we became really close and eventually had amazing sex and then fell in love.” 

“Well, when you say it like that…” I narrowed my eyes, “Did you just say you loved me?”

“What is love?” asked Gloria. I laughed. 

“Baby don’t hurt me.” 

“Baby don’t hurt me.” she sang. 

There was a knock at the door. Gloria and I turned sharply to look. 

“Finally!” said Gloria, throwing up her hands, “A woman can only wait so long.” 

She sat forward with her hands on her knees as I paid the guy. I took an extra moment to slip the ‘do not disturb’ hanger on the outside knob. Gloria watched as I put the calzone on the table and returned to my seat. She followed my movement as I opened the box and tore off a bite. 

“Hungry?” I asked. 

“Very much.” she said, gently licking her lips. 

“I never asked, but how long has it been for you?” 

“I had a big lunch.” said Gloria. 

“That’s not what I meant.” 

“About a year. I’m really excited to get back to the best I ever had.” 

I shook my head, “I hope the legend matches expectation.” 

“Why don’t we see?” 

Gloria swung herself onto my lap, pushing me back in my seat. She planted her knees at my hips. We fell into each other’s eyes for a while. Hers were so strikingly beautiful, bits of ethereal stone polished to a perfect sheen. Her lips were pink, open slightly. At that moment I was again reborn, and we forsook the world in favor of our own universe. Every moment was a racing step. The smell of her body, its gentle weight on my lap and the soft sound of her breath all furthered me towards a furious excitement that panicked to be satiated. 

“Do you want to see me naked?” she asked. 

“I do.” I said. She kissed me before grabbing her shirt at the bottom and pulling it up over her head. She had on a white bra underneath. The latch fell apart under my fingers and her breasts freed themselves. As amazing as ever, perfect, young, round breasts with pearly-pink nipples as erect as I was. I ran my hands along her curves before leaning in to kiss her belly. 

Gloria took hold of my collar as I came back up and wrenched my shirt off. She threw it and her own clothes on the floor behind us. I didn’t ask for permission before taking her breasts in my hands. They, just as the rest of her, were wonderfully soft. A sharp breath escaped Gloria as her nipples squeezed between my fingers. I leaned in again to put one in my mouth and the taste almost made me cum then and there. 

I found the button on her pants and popped it open. The zipper went down on its own as my hand slid through. My fingers wove through her pubic hair and my index found her entrance. She was already wet. I’d only slipped the tip in before she pulled my hand out.

“Forget that.” she said, fighting with my sweatpants, “I just want to be fucked.” 

I lifted my butt to kick off my pants. Gloria shimmed about to do the same, then again to remove her blue underwear. My dick extended as much as it could towards her, as hard as I think it had ever been. The heat radiating off her pussy was incredible. 

“Fuck.” I said, as an unfortunate worm of responsible realization burrowed through the fury, “I don’t have any condoms.” 

“Don’t need them.” said Gloria, “I’m on birth control.” 

“Really? For how long?” 

“Six years.” she said.

A drop of her wetness ran down my shaft and mixed with the precum. She lowered herself and I pushed into her. It was all at once familiar. The sound of her heavy breathing, the smell of not only her but her wetness, the specific tightness of her body wrapped around the length of my dick, each fold and squeeze applying extreme amounts of unfair, unreal pleasure through my whole body. Her insides were all at once too hot and not hot enough. 

She was hunched over me, moving her knees to slide up and down. She rested her head on my shoulder. Her cheeks were bright red. I ran fingers down her spine, again tasted her breasts then pulled her in close, chin on shoulder. My hands cupped her butt, helping the lift and descent. She took the whole of me, skin slapping skin and our wetness pooling between our thighs. 

“It’s everywhere.” she whispered, “Everything feels so fucking good.” 

My index finger passed over her butthole, which was twitching and throbbing just as much as her pussy around me. The moments were endless days. The stars began to die as soon as they were born. The shock began to ground itself, to gather at my feet and grow through my body before charging at the base of my dick. I leaned my head back, mouth agape. 

“Not yet.” said Gloria, “I’m not there yet.” 

Without meaning to I dug claws into Gloria’s midsection. She flinched at the sudden pain but made no motion to stop it. Her skin beneath my fingers turned crimson. She began to go faster, with each return harder. At the very end of my rope, she grit her teeth together so hard they might break. Her whole body went rigid. She made no noise as she came, just silently shook in my arms. Her pussy went so tight around me I had no choice but to acquiesce to its demands. The sheer pleasure of cumming inside of her made me forget my name, my age and every other pertinent thing about behind human. I came endlessly inside. Spurt after spurt, so much that it leaked back out and contributed further to our mess. 

There’s no telling how much time passed. Still hard, I sat rested inside of her. Her whole body went limp over me. I hugged her, gave her a long kiss. When our eyes met again, she was smiling as bright as ever. Her cheeks were just as red. 

“I don’t even know if feeling that good is even legal.” she said. 

“Let me call Lewis the Lawyer and we can find out.” 

Gloria threw her head back in laughter. 

“Ugh, look at this.” I referred to the slick of juices that had formed between our legs. Gloria leaned sharply to look. 

“I told you we’d get messy.” she gently touched my dick with her index finger, following it up to where it vanished into her. 

“You’re still hard, huh?” 

“Hard not to be.” I said. 

Gloria smirked, “All jokes tonight.”

“I’m in a good mood.” 

“Me too.” said Gloria. She kissed me. 

“By the way, what’s this all about?” Gloria pointed to the still-red claw marks on her hips. I grinned sheepishly at her. 

“I got a little carried away.” I said, “Better that then finishing too soon.” 

“It actually sorta felt good.” said Gloria. 

“Remember when you bit me?” I asked. 

Gloria thought on it, “On our last night together?” 

I nodded. She put her fingers on my relevant shoulder. There was no scar or anything, just skin pockmarked with age and hair. The smooth youthfulness of her fingertips almost made me cry. Her smile faded gently into personal memory. 

“I was angry.” she said, “At the world, in that one moment. I could feel it all coming to an end. My climax was that end. Seeing you about to come, feeling that good...I didn’t want it to end.” 

I moved Gloria’s hair behind her ears, stroking her cheeks with my thumbs. She slowly removed herself from memoria, blinking back to present day. She accepted a kiss. The digital hotel clock on the wall behind her caught my eye. 

“Hey.” I said, gesturing towards it, “I lasted twelve minutes.” 

Gloria laughed, “It’s nice to be proven wrong sometimes.” 

She adjusted her position, giving another ride up the length of me. New pleasure hurried through, giving my urges a full set of green lights. She took let out a breath, which turned into a deep inhale to save face. 

“I came before you did.” said Gloria, “So you’re the winner.” 

“I was the winner the day I met you.” I said. Gloria stuck out her tongue. 

“That’s probably the cheesiest thing you’ve ever said.” 

“I like it when you talk dirty.” I abruptly changed the subject. Gloria narrowed her eyes at me, “I always have.” 

“Do you also like fucking me?” she said, “Sticking your dick all the way into me and knocking around my insides?” 

Gloria leaned in close. Her nipples pressed against my chest. I shivered as she breathed into my ears. 

“Do you like watching me come?” 

“Yes to all those things.” I said. 

“Then make me scream.” 

Every muscle went taught as I got to my feet. Gloria hung on with her limbs wrapped around me. I waddled over to the bed and threw her onto it. She caught her balance on her arms, head up to watch as I took her legs by the knees. With our mix of semen and wetness lubricating us, I began to move. I spared no courtesy. My thrusts were sharply merciless. My hips slammed against hers, skin against skin creating wet slaps. Her head threw back on the second one. She took big handfuls of the sheets. Her noises, nothing but ecstasy voiced, fueled me even further. 

She drew her knees together at some point. It tightened herself around me even more, something I didn’t think possible. Her pink socks bobbed around me like small fireflies. 

“Fuck!” screamed Gloria. As he back curved up, she screamed again without form. Each time I slammed into her she did so, gritting her teeth at the end as her whole body turned to glass and shattered with orgasm. My animal still not fed, I grabbed her hips and turned her over. She lay flat on her belly. Before re-inserting, I looked at her. The slope of her back turned into her the round of her ass. Her were legs open just slightly to show her butthole and beneath it the cherry-pink, shimmering wet lips of her vagina. 

I stuck my thumb into her ass and my dick into her pussy. The pressure on both was amazing. Gloria’s sounds were muffled through the bedding. There was no way I could persist much longer, I just had to hold on until--until maybe--

For a second, perhaps more, I lost track of the world. It simply dissolved around me. I floated in unmarked, untraceable space. Starless, silent, infinite. I could see myself, lit wholly through unknown source, and move my limbs as usual command, but any forward travel seemed impossible. I remembered my whole life. Not in any flashes or meaningful way, but as somebody would remember a time or place. Sudden realization that leads to introspection all at once and then nowhere at all. Tears clouded my vision. I shut my eyes to get rid of them. 

When I opened them again, another body had joined me. Glowing just as mysteriously as I, Gloria silently latched on. Her warmth bled into my own. Her hands covered my face, her fingers clearing my eyes. She too was crying and all I could do was return the favor to remove her tears. She kissed me. The void, the two of us, reminded me that were just creatures again, two distant beings in a place without matter and I came to a sharp realization before the darkness vanished us home. 

Gloria’s backside lifted viciously against me as she came again. Her juices squirted out her in rhythm. As she began to relax I let go. The orgasm was ten times what it had been the first time. I exploded so hard my dick flinched out of her, blowing hot cum all over the bedsheets. Suddenly lightheaded, I shuffled around to collapse next to her. She turned to face me, smiling brightly. 

“What’s my name?” she asked me. 

“Gloria Marcotte.” 

“Is it?” Gloria laughed. 

“Sure hope so.” I said, “I feel like I should thank you.” 

“I should thank you.” said Gloria, “That was just amazing.” 

“Let’s thank each other.” I said. We kissed. 

“Gloria.” 

“Yes?” 

“I don’t care anymore why we’re together. I’m just glad we are.” 

“Me too.” 

We laid in silence. The room smelled like cum and sweat. The bedsheets were a mess. Our clothes scattered across the floor. The absence of noise felt a generator suddenly being shut off. 

“I hope we don’t get in trouble.” I said, “For being too noisy.” 

“Let them hear.” said Gloria, “Let them be jealous.” 

She scooted closer to me, “Let them jerk off to us.” 

“Hey--you’ve been on birth control for six years?” 

“Yep.” 

“Since you were...sixteen.” 

“It originally was to stop acne.” said Gloria, “But eventually my period went away because of it and I realized I didn’t miss it at all so I just kept taking it.” 

“Good for us, then.” 

I moved my thumb through her bangs. She left out a curt sigh. 

“We should take a break.” she said. 

“I’ll probably need a few hours.” I said. 

“I’m gonna take a shower.” said Gloria, “Wanna join me?” 

I shook my head, “I’ll change the sheets.” 

Gloria kissed my forehead and got up. She took her bag and vanished into the bathroom. After sleeping for ten minutes, I woke up in a start and peeled the sheets off the bed. There was another bundle in the closet and I applied them to the mattress. I offered a silent prayer to the messy pile, begging forgiveness from the cleaning crew. 

I lay on the clean sheets, staring at the ceiling for the duration of Gloria’s shower. The low light of the room turned it dirty gold. When Gloria reemerged she was wearing a green tee with a cartoon muffin on it. Her panties were sapphire blue. 

“Much better.” she said, dropping her bag on the floor, “Hey, can I have some of your calzone?” 

“Of course.” I said. Gloria on her knees and spun the calzone box to her. I slid out of bed and sat on the couch opposite her. She tore off pieces of dough and dipped them into the tiny marinara sauce before devouring them. 

“I like watching you eat.” I said. 

“Creep.” said Gloria, mouth full. We laughed. A notion struck me, and I retrieved my phone from the nightstand. Camera on, I snapped a candid of Gloria mid-bite. She gave me a scowl, waited until her mouth was clear, then smiled broadly. The camera gladly accepted the pose. 

“My turn.” she said, crawling to her bag for her phone. She did a sixteen shot photo shoot of me on the couch. 

“Maybe I should put on some pants.” I said. 

“No need.” said Gloria. She looked up from flipping through photos, then lifted her shirt for me. I hesitated, but the moment took me and soon a dozen or so pictures of her breasts found home on my phone. 

“Gimme your number.” she asked. 

“You don’t have it?” I could have sworn I gave it to her at some point, though further investigation concluded that there was no point in which I could have either safely given it to her or had a need to do so. She looked up at me expectantly. For a split-second she turned back into a child, a little blondie girl holding a too-big cell phone. She returned to adult Gloria again and I gave her my number. Two minutes later I got a text of my dick, taken candidly from under the coffee table. Gloria stifled laughter. 

“We’ll have to stay in contact.” I said.

A sour moment passed between us. Gloria broke it by noisily eating another bit of calzone. She’d worked through almost half of it.

“I wish this could last forever.” she grumbled. 

“Me too.” I said. 

“What should be do about it?” 

I sat back, hands on knees, “I...I don’t know. We both have our lives independent of each other. This whole happenstance is unfortunate in that respect.” 

“There’s nothing unfortunate about it.” said Gloria.

“There is a little bit.” I said, “We’ll have to split up again.” 

“But we’re together again. We’re adults, we can express our relationship however we please. Distance is just...a thing, right?” 

“Yeah, but what of it? Having a taste of the real thing then having to go back to imitation is hard.” 

“What’s ‘imitation’ about it?” 

“A relationship based off phone calls and text messages isn’t as nice, is what I mean.” 

“Better than before.” said Gloria. She’d put on a serious face. 

“That’s true.” I said, “I just wish...I wish it could be different.”

“It will be eventually.” said Gloria, “You can’t just expect us to throw away our lives for this.” 

“I didn’t.” I said. There was a pop of sudden anger, “Also don’t make it sound so trivial.” 

“There’s nothing trivial about it!” Gloria said, leaning up on her arms, “That’s the problem!” 

“I just don’t want to be away from you again.” I said, leaning my head towards my knees. Gloria sat back on her butt, poking at the calzone. She took a few more bites. 

“Our first fight.” she said. 

“More like a clash of passion.” I said. Gloria laughed through her nose. 

“It’ll be alright.” she said, “It has to be. All the pieces are there. I’ll graduate in a few years and come visit and eventually things will come together.” 

A few tears made roads down Gloria’s cheeks. She removed them with the backs of her hands. After a few seconds of guilt, I reached out a hand. 

“Come here.”

She stood curtly to come sit by my side. Her hands found mine and they squeezed tight together. 

“I’m sorry.” I said. 

“Me too.” 

“Do…” I gave a crooked smile, “Do you want to do butt stuff?” 

Gloria met my eyes, then took a trip to look at my crotch. Hand untwined, she gently pat the tip of my dick. 

“Is he ready?” 

“I can make it go.” I said. 

Gloria stood, wordlessly. She found her bag and from the depths took a shiny-silver item. It flew from her to me, caught with two hands. Unveiled, it was a facsimile of a penis. The mid-section was ribbed with the head and glans much more rounded than any natural creature. Gloria stood over me as though she’d come to force me to row a boat. 

“That’s for my butt.” she said. She pointed at my dick, “And that’s for me.” 

“Yes ma’am.” I said. 

The next hour was me and her making the bed messy again. It was so nice to be with her, to hold her, to listen to her as she experienced the same pleasures I was. To lose myself in my love for her was something I never wanted to forget, to have go away. The night created our universe for the final time, a place where me and her could exist in the world together, a spectral existence for two people that the whole of humanity could finally see. 

“God.” she breathed. Her knees were at my sides as I lay on my back. I was all the way inside her. Her toy stuck out her asshole, so deep it was almost flush. It vibrated enough for me to feel it. Her sweat dripped onto my chest. I couldn’t hold back my voice, neither could she. Our skin slapped together, making a wet noise with each thrust. Her nipples were at full stand. Her stomach moved in and out with each injection, going concave each time she came. Our sexual energy flowed through us, combining with our feelings, our love, our time together and culminated in a place where happiness grew. 

My shadow was nowhere to be seen. 

I had returned from the moon to find that Earth had changed, but I was still a part of it. This was my whole world now and had always been. 

“Gloria.” I said, in the deepest part of the night. She was the little spoon as we lay together. She made a gentle noise of acknowledgement. 

“I love you.” I said. 

Silence, for a long, long time. 

Then a gentle whisper. 

“I love you too.”


	10. The Glory of being Human

I had a dream about Gloria. It wasn’t anything explicit, merely a casual appreciation of her face. One of those dreams that mirrors what the biggest recurrence in your life has been. Like dreaming about work or family. There’s no way to know how long the dream lasted, but it was ended by the distant intrusion of my phone’s ringtone. The stock bit of basic melody snuck through REM and continually got louder until I woke up. My eyes were bleary in the morning sun, even as it damped through closed curtains. My body still felt heavy, tired most at the fingertips and toes. There was something moist around my knees. 

Gloria, as naked as I, slept peacefully next to me. She’d kicked her blankets into a tangle around her feet. She lay on her stomach, with her pillow balled up forcefully in her arms and under her head. She looked as though she’d fallen from the sky and just fell asleep where she landed. I looked at her until my phone stopped ringing, and only the absence of sound cued me to get out of bed. 

The number was one I didn’t recognize. Thankfully, whomever it was had been nice enough to leave a voicemail. I sat on the couch and took a few bites of now-stale calzone as I listened. It was from Francine Delorè, who told me that she had good news concerning my horn and to get back in touch with her as soon as possible. 

“Who was it?” asked Gloria. Her voice drifted around like a lazy cloud, crisp around the edges. She stirred only slightly. 

“The antique lady I went to see yesterday.” I said. 

“Mmm.” grunted Gloria. 

“Said she has some good news.” 

“You should go see her.” said Gloria. 

Silence for a beat. 

Gloria shot upright in a sudden panic. Her hair was mussed, her expression haggard with fatigue. 

“What time is it?!” she asked, leaning forward on her palms. 

“Ten forty-two.” I said. Relief came over her as sudden as the panic. She fell flop back down on the bed, arm on forehead. 

“Just about seven hours sleep.” I said. 

“Still not enough.” said Gloria. 

“Tell me about it.” I relaxed into the sofa, “I feel like I could sleep for days.” 

“I don’t think I’m gonna learn much today.” Gloria grumbled. 

“Check-out is at noon.” I said, “Today’s my last day in this room.” 

“So sad.” said Gloria. 

“I’m going to take a shower.” I stood up, “You okay?” 

Gloria lifted her arm to let it flop back down. She then pushed up off of it and gathered herself to her feet. Her posture was falling apart at the seams. She slugged over to me and slapped palms on my shoulders. 

“You have to let me shower.” she said, “I am so gross right now.” 

“Let’s shower together?” I suggested. Gloria gave me a strange look, to which I held up my hands. 

“Not like that.” I said. 

“I am in no mood.” said Gloria. 

“Me neither.” I counted on my fingers, “I think I came seven times last night. Which is ridiculous. I should be dead.” 

“I feel like I’m dead.” said Gloria, “I need more sleep.” 

I took her hand. We went to the bathroom and participated in the most mundane, utilitarian shower ever to occur. Gloria under the water first, then I swapped in as she lathered up with a tiny hotel soap. She passed it off to me as she returned to the flow and used her hands to make herself clean. An extra few moments was spent between her legs, as it was with me. The next swap was the same, but with shampoo and fifteen minutes later we both emerged as clean as whistles. 

Gloria didn’t bother wrapping herself in her towel. She simply used it for the intended purpose as she made way to her bag. From it she dressed, a simple tee shirt with shorts. After tugging on her socks she turned to me, defeated. 

“I forgot to put on my bra.” she said. 

“I’m sorry.” I couldn’t help but smile. 

With a grunt that could only be described as frustration personified, Gloria pulled off her shirt to apply the undergarment. The whole situation was adorable, and a private show of Gloria’s inner machines that apparently didn’t work so well without sleep-fuel. 

After getting dressed, I did six rounds of the room, just to make sure I didn’t forget anything. Everything seems to be collected and in my bag when I found Gloria’s butt toy on the floor at the foot of the bed. She was sitting on the couch with her hands between her knees when I handed it to her. It got a sleepy smile that turned coy as she took it. 

“Do you use that a lot?” I asked. 

“I bought it on my way over here.” admitted Gloria as she put it deep into her bag, “Sara’s.” 

“They’re still open?” 

“Sex sells.” Gloria yawned. 

“Always will.” I said, “Come on, let's do breakfast.”

# # # 

We’d missed the free continental breakfast by quite a few hours, so we instead took favor to cruising around town and settling on an IHOP. A frizzy-haired waitress showed us to a window booth and we both asked for coffee. Gloria lay her menu flat under her elbows to look it over. I browsed it like a newspaper. 

“If I get a triple-stack will you split it with me?” asked Gloria. She pointed lazily at her menu. I found the same article on mine and nodded. 

Gloria smiled before tucking chin-in-palm and turning to look out the window. The road was busy with mid-morning traffic. The inside radio was playing Bob Seger. I traded time between outside and Gloria.

“It feels like the end of summer.” she said. 

“Pretty good way to end it this time, though.” I said. Gloria yawned like a lazy cat and laid her head on the table. 

“I hope we have a good future.” she said. 

The waitress brought us our coffee. I watched the creamer swirl through it. The mood took a sudden twist, spiraling around us like ghosts, then all at once vanishing. 

“We will.” I said, “We will.” 

The rest of the meal consisted mostly of silence. The waitress brought our triple-stack and an extra strange look as we both started at it from opposite sides. Her side seemed to vanish quicker than mine and I can’t help but feel somewhat shortchanged in my portion but--whatever. Seeing Gloria’s smug look of satisfaction when I pointed it out was worth it. Not like I needed the carbs anyway, or the sugar. 

“Where next?” I asked as we left the building. Gloria stuck her hands in her pockets and looked up at the sky. 

“Home?” I said. Gloria shook her head. 

“Didn’t you have to go visit that antique lady?” 

“You want to come?” I asked. Gloria bobbed her shoulders. 

“Not for a while.” she said, then turned to look at me, “But I will go with you right now.” 

We both laughed and it felt pretty nice. 

For the first ten minutes the drive was silent. Only when Gloria began recognizing the route did she speak up. 

“This is close to Westfield.” she said. 

“Oh is it?” I feigned. My tone must have given me away. Gloria turned a suspicious look to me. 

“Stalker.” she said. 

“Completely unintentional.” I defended myself. 

Gloria had sunken deep into her seat when we arrived at Home Again. She peered over the dashboard like a curious cat, eyebrows raising at the sight. 

“My mom comes here sometimes.” she said. 

“Are you alright?” I asked her. I touched the back of my palm to her forehead. It felt fine. 

“I’m tired.” she said, “Also…” she turned her eyes to look out the window, “I’m just worried.” 

“About?” 

“Stuff.” 

“Come on, be honest.” 

Gloria’s hands rest across her stomach. She watched the sky for an almost uncomfortable amount of time. 

“About me and you.” she said, “About...life, I guess.” 

“I see.” I did an awkward lean to kiss the top of her head, “Please don’t worry.” 

“‘Don’t worry’ isn’t a cure-all for worry.” said Gloria. 

“I’m just trying to help.” I said, “Would it be better if I consoled you with Chemistry terms?” 

Gloria gave me a flat look. 

“Like...there’s too much pH in worry?” I shrugged helplessly. Gloria shook her head the way one would at a dumb puppy. 

“There’s not enough pH in it.” she said, playfully slapping my cheek, “Let’s just go see what your horn is worth.”

 

Francine Delorè noticed us as soon as we entered. She hurried together something from behind her as we approached and greeted us with a polite librarian’s smile. 

“I’m sorry I missed your call.” I said, “Figured it would be easier if I just showed up.” 

“That’s fine, that’s fine.” said Francine. She extended her smile to Gloria as the two made brief eye contact, “I have great news for you.” 

“I’m excited to hear it.” I said. 

Francine presented us with my horn of plenty, wrapped in a terrycloth shell. 

“I had to make a few calls.” she said, “Do some video chats and all that. I’m not one-hundred percent on this, but I have a few friends that are and after a few long hours we’ve come to the conclusion that this isn’t Ivory.” 

“That’s too bad.” I said. 

“It’s actually rhinoceros horn.” 

Sudden silence. I could hear myself lick my lips. 

“And…” I prompted. 

“It has the same legal status as ivory.” Francine explained, “But its value is much higher.” 

“How high?” asked Gloria. 

“I’d be willing to buy it from you today for fifty thousand.” 

Gloria gasped. I found myself standing dumbfounded with my hand over my mouth. 

“Full disclosure.” said Francine, “The worth is somewhat higher, but what I’m offering is a ‘simple’ price. Without the hassle of auctions and fees.” 

“We’ll take it.” both Gloria and I said, simultaneously. We looked at each other and laughed. 

“I was hoping you’d say that!” said Francine, “We can do the transfer right now, if you’d please?” 

Francine bustled about, producing a stack of paperwork from a nearby box and I spent the next half-hour signing them. Pages of legalize, agreements and disclosures that I skimmed for the gist before putting my name to them. Gloria sat in an old rocker, hands between her knees as she swayed. She seemed happy, but her general slump persisted beneath it. 

Francine took my bank information and gave them a call. Words were had, a conversation I drifted in and out of, spending more time looking at Gloria. At the end of it, we both shook Francine’s hand and left with a dreamy joy that we’d not entered with. 

I called my sister in the parking lot. Gloria burst into peals of laughter as she heard the ecstatic shout through my phone. I had to move the thing to my waist to preserve my hearing. 

“So, now what?” Gloria asked after we’d returned to the car interior. I poked around on my phone trying to confirm a transfer to my distant sibling, but the amount was too large and I got impatient. She could wait for a bit. I looked up at the sky, then to Gloria. The beauty of both was immaculate. Wordlessly, I offered my hand. Gloria took it. It was warm, both from the day and from her humanity. 

“You said you didn’t want me to be your sugar daddy.” I said. 

“I still don’t.” said Gloria, “I just want to be with you.” 

“How about I just do something nice for you, then?” I asked. Gloria puckered up her lips.

“Like what?” 

“Let me buy you a car.” 

Gloria stared me down for a long while. Somewhere in the middle of it her hand lingered on my cheek. Her expression drifted between sleepy, thoughtful, worried and even a flit of anger. I wished then to just slip from my body and enter my spirit into hers. I wanted to be able to hear her thoughts, witness the machines at work. A single tear rolled down her cheek. She caught it on her thumb before I could even move. 

“I just want to make you happy.” I whispered. 

“You already have.” 

“Happier.” 

Gloria smirked, then kissed me. Her forehead leaned against mine.

“I wouldn’t agree if I didn’t just see you make a lot of free money.” she said. 

“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t just make a lot of free money.” 

Gloria swept her arms around me. She pulled into a tight hug. Through my hands on her back, I could feel her gentle cries. 

“I’m going to miss you.” she said. 

“Me too.” I said, then quickly corrected myself, “I’ll miss you too, I mean.” 

Gloria held on for a few minutes more, then talked directly into my sternum, “I want a sunroof.” 

“Let’s go shopping, then.” 

# # # 

My phone directed us to four different used car lots until we finally got to one that wasn’t shady. It was a little cozy-corner lot to a treeline that divided it from some grassy fields. Near the city limits, it took us a good half-hour to get there. Gloria wouldn’t let go of my hand as we browsed, which I didn’t mind one bit. 

“How about a Cherokee?” I pointed. 

“Too big.” said Gloria. Her head was on a swivel as we walked. 

“One of these little boxy guys, then?” 

“Too small.” 

I rolled my eyes, “Gloria-locks.” 

Gloria slapped the roof a red Ford sedan as we passed. I was pulled into an abrupt stop. She extended our arms as she swayed around, looking inside reading carefully the affixed documentation. She rubbed the tip of her nose as she considered it. 

“It’s not bad.” I said, “And it has a sunroof.”

“And a CD player.” said Gloria, “With two cup holders.” 

“I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic.” 

Gloria shrugged, “Not really.”   
We found the dealer, which wasn’t hard as he had been floating around our position the entire time, and the deal-making began. We only swam around for fifteen minutes or so before it was struck and not too long after the keys went into Gloria’s hands. Together we drove off the lot and made for the old apartments. Gloria sped ahead of me, arriving first. She was sitting on the hood of her car when I got there. I parked horizontal to her and got out. 

“It’s just a little past one.” she said, “Just about time.” 

“End of summer again.” I muttered. There was a sudden stab in my chest. I looked down at my feet in hopes of evading it. My hands found my pockets. I took a resolute breath before returning upwards. 

“This isn’t the end.” I said. 

“I know.” said Gloria, “But I hate the waiting.” 

“Just live your life.” I told her, “Just...live it.”

“Great speech.” said Gloria. She got to her feet. Already she had tears in her eyes. For a brief flash she vanished, replaced with a precocious twelve-year-old that bore the same mark of sorrow. Her green eyes shimmered in the midday sun. Then she became an adult, and I became older, and time gave no leverage for us. My back suddenly started to hurt. Like an idiot, I put my hands over my face. 

“Don’t do that.” said Gloria. She approached and wrapped her arms around me, “You start, I start.” 

I held her and pulled her tight. As tight as I could. I wanted her then to be a part of me, to magically vanish into me and the two of us be reborn as a whole creature, something fantastic with beauty. She too wept as such and history repeated. We were just two animals in the throngs of human misery, the price of having the privilege to love. Everything in my life fed through to this moment, then funneled outward again back to what it was and I didn’t want to leave it. 

Gloria stood on her tiptoes and kissed me. A kiss apocalyptic, a kiss that then destroyed all worlds prior, all known universes and collapsed them into a singularity. When I opened my eyes, I was in a brand new existence and thankfully, Gloria was still with me. 

Gloria. 

Sunflower yellow hair, brilliant green eyes. Her cheeks pink, lips red, body shaped perfection. Her voice, ideas, thoughts, humanity, smarts and life all came together to become an irreplaceable thing and that thing had found me. Despite knowing full well that we weren’t restricted by morality or society anymore, the circumstances had led us to split again. It hurt maybe even more because of it. 

“I’ll call you.” said Gloria, “And text you and come visit and…”

“I know.” I said, “Don’t let it hurt your life, though. I want you to graduate and be the best at what you want. I want you to live as free and as personal as you can.”

“I want you a part of it.” she sobbed. 

“I will be.” I said. 

Gloria pushed away to meet my eyes. She showed me the most brilliant smile. If before had been a newborn star, this was a full star of itself. It was something fantastic enough to remove me from all known realities. I kissed her on the forehead. 

Then summer ended. 

The new existence settled into place. 

Time again began to flow. 

It’s unfortunate, being human. At the base of it, it really is. There’s so much to be and deal with just existing. The boilerplate deal everybody gets revolves around accepting these caveats of emotion and sensation in trade for chance at significant beauty. Not everybody will find that beauty, that’s the game, but those who do will understand the meaning of being human. 

“Beauty” is a catch-all term I use, not meaning aesthetically or emotionally pleasing as the word typically does, but rather a wide ration of experiences that defines who we are. Some people might find beauty in just existing. Others may find it in personal possession or even in pain. Others yet, won’t ever find beauty. There does exist a life in which meaning is never found. It’s something nobody wants, so rarely is it acknowledged, but it does exist. 

When we’re created, new life, the dice begin to roll. We take our existences as they are and the world around us plays the game. Some will win, some will lose--that’s how that song goes, right? I find myself so lucky to have won as I did. Lucky in a way I can’t even describe. To have met Gloria, to have known her, to have reunited with her. I’m sure if I shared this silly analogy with her, she’d express the same. 

The years went on. Time, as always, refused to stop. Gloria kept her word and we stayed in touch. From my distance, I watched her continue her education, graduate, get a good job, build a life for herself. Everyday I thanked creation that I was a part of it. 

And yet…

Everyday, I dreamed of her. Of being together, of seeing our future. 

It was near the end of August, just about when the leaves threatened to change. How long had it been, I don’t know. It was a Saturday and I was at home, in a little cottage I bought over the years. I found myself looking from the outside, at my life, at the world compared to what it was fifteen years ago. My hands looked different. I was different. Yet...something persisted. I got to my feet. 

I turned to look at the front door. 

This world is something else, let me tell you. 

There was a knock. Adorable, in quality. A little three-step number. 

I took a step, felt the weight of my body, my bearings and my soul. 

For a second, I was swimming an endless void. 

Then I woke up. 

And answered the door.


End file.
